Page 16 of Open To Negotiation

“I had a nice time.” Her bright eyes were on me.

“Can I have your number?” I asked, hoping I had done enough to earn it.

There was a pause before she spoke, “No,” her smile dropping a little from her face.

“Can I see you tonight?” I knew the answer already but I had to ask it anyway.

“I have plans.” She grabbed the door.

I ground my teeth together. “Another hot date?”

“Thanks, Knight, I had fun.” She turned and walked away from me, without a look over her shoulder.

She didn’t say she would see me again but fuck if I let that happen.

6

Theo

Ilet out a sigh as I walked into the boardroom at the new Knight Enterprise offices. We’d just bought the space three months ago and I was happy with how it was coming together. We bought two floors in this older building and ripped it down to the studs.

The style was industrial, we’d taken out a part of the floor so you could see the second floor from the first and added ceiling height. There were windows on both sides of the building meaning we had a ton of natural light. Exposed pipes and beams in the ceiling were contrasted with black light fixtures and concrete flooring.

The first floor held our lounge space with white couches, tables and desks scattered in front of the windows with a coffee bar ready for staff use. In the back part of the first floor there were a number of small boardrooms that people could book for collaborative work along with desks that people could use.

On the second floor were the six executive offices and a large boardroom. It wasn’t as busy as downstairs, meaning that we had more privacy. Our assistants had desks up here too.

“You’re late,” William Armstrong said looking at his watch and then back to me. He was anal about the time for all meetings. He thought if you weren’t ten minutes early you were late.

Noah and Oli had walked in just behind me. Asher, Noah, and I had been close since we were young. I started living with Noah and his parents when I was thirteen and Asher moved in not long after. I don’t think we would have gotten through our teen years without his family. His parents didn’t bat an eye at having two extra mouths to feed and they helped shape the men we were today.

Then we went away to uni together and we met Oli, Will and Jaxson early on. Asher and I had met Oli in a business class and Noah had met Will and Jaxson at a party. We had been a closed off, tight-knit group since. I couldn’t remember the last time I went more than twenty-four hours without seeing at least one of them.

“Fuck off, it’s been five minutes, and the others aren’t even here yet,” Oli said as he slipped into one of the black leather chairs surrounding the table. He was a numbers wiz, always had been. That was why he was our CFO and handled anything financial.

“How was daddy’s latest kiss ass?” Jaxson Hayes asked, coming in from the other side.

“Yeah, Knight? How did we feel about our lunch companion yesterday?” Noah asked with a shit eating grin. I shot him a glare.

Nothing much bothered the guy, he could charm even the coldest person. He was probably the only reason Asher and I had any friends. His charm came in handy with how much negotiations he did and how many contractors he had to convince to get shit done for us.

“Shut it,” I grumbled as I pulled my phone out to see the many emails I’d missed with my focus on Quinn at coffee.

Had I not answered that call from my father, I wouldn’t have met her, and she wouldn’t be consuming my thoughts. I didn’t know if I regretted it, but it was a twist I didn’t see coming.

Another reason to be mad at my father.

“Knight was trying to give Ash a run for his money yesterday.” I glared at Oli as the man himself walked into the room pushing his watch around on his wrist.

“I resent that,” Asher Lawson said in his usual monotone voice. It was a good day when you got more than a few words and a grunt from him.

I’d made my first million the summer after my first year of uni. I’d created an app that allowed travelers to input all their bookings including flights, hotels and excursions in one place. It tracked everything for you and would give you a full schedule with notifications if there were any time concerns or offer alternative suggestions based on what other people had booked or said online.

I’d never been particularly passionate about travel, but business was a different story. I saw a gap in the market and acted on it. Before I even had the chance to publish the app in the store, a major travel company had already bought it.

Asher was the first to join me when I decided to grow the business and then Noah joined us a month later. I’d tried to change the name, but I’d already gone to all the effort of incorporating, setting up the accounts and the sale had been published under Knight Enterprises, they’d both told me not to bother. They didn’t care that it was my last name.

We invested the money from the sale of the app into a few other start-ups, selling those when we started seeing returns and our portfolio kept growing. The rest of the guys joined us within six months to help build the empire we had today.